Acton told Forbes that Mark Zuckerberg and other Facebook executives wanted to begin targeting ads at users and selling business analytics tools, two plans that Acton didn't agree with. "At the end of the day, I sold my company," Acton told Forbes. "I sold my users' privacy to a larger benefit. I made a choice and a compromise. I live with that every day."

In March, when Facebook was at the center of a scandal involving the exposure of private user data, Acton tweeted "It is time. #deletefacebook." His fellow WhatsApp co-founder, Jan Koum, departed Facebook in April.